Tag Archives: woom bike

Teaching your kid to ride a bike without training wheels may seem like a daunting task. But, if they’re used to riding a balance bike like the WOOM 1 from WOOM Bikes, it can be done in less than a week.

Not long after I announced we were getting a WOOM 2 Pedal Bike to transition from the WOOM 1 Balance Bike, the much anticipated two-wheeler arrived. Avery diligently “helped” Daddy open the box and get her Big Rocket ready to ride. Luckily, WOOM makes setup easy so your kiddo can hop on and ride pose for a cute pic.

For those wondering, yes, she quickly accrued 10 miles on the WOOM 1 to earn her new bike. Actually, it took less than a week to get there. Okay, okay, I admit that’s not much of a goal to earn a nice new bike like the WOOM 2, but hey, I wanted to see our girl pedaling for the first time! I imagined her hopping on and pedaling on the first try while she cried out in joy as she took off.

After a few more attempts, it was clearly not happening on the first day. Knowing not to push her too hard which will easily ruin a kids’ experience, we called it quits for the day. Before getting on the bike that day, her enthusiasm for her new pedal bike was through the roof, but afterward, she was telling me she was all done with it and i could give it back. Ummm, sorry, dear, that’s not quite how it works.

The next day, after an encouraging talk and promises from daddy that I will be right there to hold on to her, she agreed to give it another go. Little did she know, I was going to suddenly let go as she was moving along. I wasn’t sure how it would turn, but it sounded like a good idea to this wise dad. But was it?

YES! On the second day of riding, unsure if my “just let go” plan would prove successful, Going Mom and I had a pedaling toddler on our hands! You could see and hear the confidence radiating from our little girl.

It’s always bittersweet watching your little one learn and grow, but this definitely goes down in the super proud dad history book. Avery has been riding great all by herself since that day and can even hang with the older bike riding boys in the neighborhood. When asked if they want to ride, I’d say their actions are all that’s needed.

She kept up well on her WOOM 1 Balance Bike, but now she can really hang with the more experienced friends. She’s also learning how to share her pride and joy, “Big Rocket” (the balance bike is now “Little Rocket”, obviously), with her friends.

The WOOM 2 is parent, Avery, and friend approved!

We’ve been watching her ride for a couple weeks now and while she’s getting better, there are still areas that need work. Thanks to the freewheeling kit offered by WOOM, she’s quickly learned to use her hand brakes, but every now and then she’ll shoot her legs out to stop with her feet as if on a balance bike. Another issue is getting her kickstand up/down.

It’s a daily struggle, but I refuse to help in hopes that she’ll eventually catch on. I know she will, but until then, it’s painful to watch. As frustrating as it is, she surprisingly accepts that she should do it on her own, and knows a nice bike deserves to be properly…errr, propped and not just laid on its side. Always respect your belongings, another great lesson.

Riding straight and not wobbling all over the sidewalk is another big area to work on. We have to remind her to look where she’s going and not get distracted, but any parent that has or had toddlers knows how that goes.

I’ll share more as her transition continues, hopefully with a better braker that can ride in a straight line! No matter what, everyone is in awe that she picked up riding her pedal bike so quickly and never needing training wheels. We tell her how proud we are each and every day.

For over a year, Avery has been riding her WOOM 1 Balance Bike (aka Rocket) as her number one choice for getting around the neighborhood. As expected, it was a bit of a slow start as she got used to riding on two wheels. She’s never had or used training wheels, so you can only expect it to take some time. Here she is on her first riding session….

Surprisingly, she caught on fast as noted by her increase in speed and confidence in weaving left and right. She’s even displayed her skills at the local skate park.

Maybe it’s a biased parent thing, but I’d say she’s pretty good with her WOOM Balance Bike. Of course she still has her falls, usually from something like a construction truck catching her eye while she’s riding, but overall, watching her on the WOOM has give us nothing short of numerous #ProudParent moments. Including things like conquering a steep downslope even though she fell a few times before that.

Any parent probably thinks about how their child develops socially, especially one that stays home with their kid instead of taking them to daycare/school, so seeing this puts a giant grin on my face! Now it’s time for the next step up in learning to ride a bike….pedals!

As fans of WOOM Bikes in our house, the choice for her next, pedaled, bike, is the WOOM 2. The super generous folks at the WOOM Bikes USA headquarters in Austin, TX happened to enjoy my posts with Avery riding their top-of-line balance bike and have agreed to send her a WOOM 2 to ride!

WOOM Bikes has provided the WOOM 2 and accessories free of charge in exchange for my documentation of the transition from a balance bike to a pedaled bike. The plan is never relying on training wheels along the way, but some of her friends do have bikes with training wheels that she will ride as a part of them sharing so well.

I’d like to eventually have a weekly gathering of kids to ride their bikes in a safe place as parents join to encourage keeping active, sharing, and having fun. Hopefully we’ll be able to pry Avery off her new ride to share with other friends if they happen to want to test it out. At first, Daddy will be lucky to ride!

But before we give her the Rocket replacement, she has to earn it. Since we don’t want her thinking she just gets nice things for no reason, she must ride 10 miles on her WOOM 1 and maintain good control while doing so. Negative miles for times when she misbehaves. She’s almost at 5 miles as I write this, and so far we have a sweet kid besides the “freebie” upsets no toddler can escape.

I’m excited to start this journey to riding a pedaled bike, and extremely grateful to WOOM for allowing me the opportunity to share their high quality bikes for kids. My blogging time has gone down dramatically as I focus more on my family and playing with Avery, but keep an eye out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in between my posts to see how Avery is doing with her WOOM 2.

Like this:

I have a feeling we’ll be skid steer hunting all summer long. Anyone following my social media accounts might’ve noticed our adventures to the new phase development in our neighborhood while riding her WOOM 1 Balance Bike. My favorite is when we spotted the butt hugging bobcats.

I have since taught her that Bobcats are a type of skid steer loader, and not all of them are Bobcats. She’s catching on quickly. Now she knows the white one is a Bobcat and the yellow one is CAT.

Our most recent adventure, however, was probably a little confusing for our construction loving tot. Under a clear blue sky, light breeze, me in my boot from a stress fracture that never fully healed, and riding her “Rocket”, we went on a hunt for the skid steer loaders busy at work in our expanding development.

Might as well add it to the list of things to let heal after my shoulder surgery coming up this month! Keeping positive…..

The adventure started off a little dull since the first skid steer loader sighting was one not busy at all. Unless you count taking a nap, like Avery says, as being busy.

Shhh, don’t tell, but I may or may not have let her sit inside empty cockpit. Hey, anything for a cute smile. Amiright?

With sounds of *beep* *beep* and *rrrrrrnnnrrrr*, we knew a busy Bobcat or other skid steer was nearby, so we carried on with the hunt. Me hobbling on a boot trying to keep up with our girl who puts the Rocket in…….ummmm – “Rocket”. After a little searching for the sound, we finally found a John Deere skid steer (yay, a rhyme!) loader hard at work scooping the earth with finesse.

The scooper moved up and down, which, obviously, meant he was waving back. We watched it move the dirt across the land for a minute and journeyed on in search of more skid steer prey. But this time, instead of Avery doing the hunting, a Bobcat came right up to us!

Slightly confused, the driver gave a hesitant wave back to the little girl in pink as she said hi to the passerby. Oh man, I’m on a rhyming roll!

With more ground to cover, we hit the road in search of the next construction vehicle. In the distance, we saw another CAT hard at work and a couple dump trucks full of dirt. Finally, we stumbled upon another Bobcat working on new lots. It was a good time to stop for a minute to take a break and pose in front of the rigid-framed machine.

You can tell from the look on her face that having daddy ask her to turn around for the 50 millionth time is wearing on her. I just want to watch the skid steer loaders, dad!

Our loop through the new phase was nearing an end, so I promised to stop bugging her and just have fun exploring around the new construction. With a handy-dandy app on phone, I tracked our total time and distance for our hunting adventure which came out to just under 2 miles.

With several stops to watch and wave and me in my boot, I’d say 43 minutes is pretty good. Now we have a goal to beat this time/distance, I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂

There’s nothing like rewarding yourself with a cool dip in the pool after a long hunting trip via bike and boot, and that’s exactly what we did.

Just what we needed. Hopefully this trend continues as we’re both having fun in the sun and it doesn’t cost a ton. Okay, I’m done with the rhymes…..for now.